By ERIN PUSTAY
The Independent
JACKSON TWP, OH —
Honor is tradition.
For 100 years, The Boys Scouts of America have been giving young men the tools they need to shape their character and their worlds through service. In that time, the organization has given at least one Massillon family a tradition of the highest honor.
Last month, Clayton Smith, a Jackson High School senior earned Eagle Scout honors – the highest award a Boy Scout could receive. When he received his Eagle badge, he became the third generation of Smith family men to receive the honor.
Clayton’s father, Jack Smith, earned his Eagle honor from the same troop – McDonaldsville Unit 935 – 30 years earlier in 1980. Jack was the fifth boy to receive the honor from the unit. Clayton is the 45th.
And the third generation Smith to do so. Clayton’s grandfather, JT Smith, received his Eagle from Brimfield Unit 259 in 1953.
That, JT said, is something truly special – to have three generations of young men strive for the Eagle Scout honor.
“You’ve got to do it yourself, nobody does it for you,” JT said. “If you want it, you have to decide you want it and then you have to work for it.”
Clayton believes that the difficulty of earning the honor is exemplified in the class with which he received the distinction.
“When I started out in scouting, there were 12 of us,” Clayton said. “Only three of us got (Eagle honors). It’s really hard to do. Once you get to high school there are so many distractions: sports, cars, jobs. It requires a lot of time, a lot of dedication as you get older.”
Part of earning the Eagle Scout honor requires the earning of 21 different badges. Of those 21, 11 badges are required. Beyond that, there is a lot of community service, volunteering with the Boy Scouts and helping to mentor younger boys.
“Absolutely,” Clayton said, “it’s a lot of work. It’s not something that just happens over night.”
Earning the honor also requires a large community service project. Clayton built an amphitheater stage for his church. Jack refurbished bleachers at Jackson High.
“We varnished them and repaired the boards from the normal wear and tear that comes from the weather and so forth,” Jack said. “They went to aluminum bleachers not long after that, but my project bought them a few more years.”
Going through all the requirements, one-by-one and checking them off the list is tedious work. But the lessons the scouts learn as they go through the requirements are things that will shape them for the rest of their lives.
For Jack, it wasn’t easy to watch Clayton as he maneuvered his way through the requirements, learning and growing and making decisions on his own. There were times when Clayton might have made a mistake and would have to correct it, but it was part of the learning process scouts go through and Jack knew he had to let Clayton do all of this on his own.
“It was great to be able to watch him grow and develop,” Jack said. “It was hard, at times, to keep a distance, but I had to let him learn his own way, figure things out and learn from the older scouts and his mentors.”
Clayton has seen how those lessons are applicable in his life at school and through other extra-curricular activities. Jack admits that he recalls some of those lessons on the job every day.
JT isn’t surprised.
“If you know the scouting laws and the motto of scouting it will help you through the rest of your life,” JT said.
And you better believe JT still remembers that pledge.
“On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country,” JT recited without stopping to think. “There’s more to it than that, of course, but those few words right there stick with you. They affect your whole life.”
For more information please contact Erin Pustay at (330) 775-1135 www.indeonline.com